Highway Rail/Grade Crossing Statutes
Below is a list of the highway/rail grade crossing statutes in effect in Oklahoma. These are meant to be a guide only and when questions arise, please consult your official statute material.
§17-81
The Corporation Commission is given full jurisdiction over all public highway crossings, where same cross steam or electric railroads or railways within the State of Oklahoma.
§17-82
The expense of construction and the maintenance of public highway grade crossings shall be borne by the railroad or railway company involved. For overgrade or undergrade public highway grade crossings over or under steam or electric railroad or railway, the assignment of cost and maintenance shall be left to the discretion of the Corporation Commission; but in no event shall the city, town or municipality be assessed with more than fifty percent (50%) of the actual costs of such overgrade or undergrade crossings.
§17-84
The Corporation Commission shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine and prescribe the particular location of highway crossings, for steam or electric railways, the protection required, to order the removal of all obstructions as to view of such crossings, to alter or abolish any such crossings, and to require, where practicable, a separation of grade at any such crossing, heretofore or hereafter established.
§17-86
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission shall have the authority, after having made proper investigations, to designate those grade crossings which are extra hazardous. At all such crossings so designated, the Commission shall have the authority to order the installation of appropriate protective devices. All such installations to be performed by the railroad. The Commission shall have the authority to determine the number, type, and location of such signs, signals, gates or other protective devices, which, however, shall conform as near as may be with generally-recognized national standards, and said Commission shall have authority to prescribe the division of the cost of the installation of such signs, signals, gates or other protective devices between the public utility and the state or its political subdivisions; provided, however, that the cost to the utility shall be not less than ten percent (10%) or more than twenty-five percent (25%) of the total costs. The railroads shall be responsible for all subsequent maintenance and cost thereof. Provided, however, that the results of investigation or investigations, findings, determinations, or orders of the Corporation Commission shall not be admissible in any civil action.
§47-11-207
A. No person shall, without lawful authority, attempt to or in fact alter, deface, injure, knock down or remove any official traffic-control device, including any nine-one-one (911) emergency telephone service route markers, or any railroad sign or signal or any inscription, shield or insignia thereon, or any other part thereof.
B. If a violation of subsection A of this section results in personal injury to or death of any person, the person committing the violation shall, upon conviction, be guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for not more than two (2) years, or by a fine of not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), or by both such fine and imprisonment.
§47-11-701
A. Whenever any person driving a vehicle approaches a railroad grade crossing under any of the circumstances stated in this section, the driver of such vehicle shall stop within fifty (50) feet but not less than fifteen (15) feet from the nearest rail of such railroad, and shall not proceed until he can do so safely. The foregoing requirements shall apply when:
1. A clearly visible electric or mechanical signal device gives warning of the immediate approach of a railroad train;
2. A crossing gate is lowered or when a human flagman gives or continues to give a signal of the approach or passage of a railroad train;
3. A railroad train approaching within approximately one thousand five (1,500) hundred feet of the highway crossing emits a signal audible from such distance and such railroad train, by reason of its speed or nearness to such crossing, is an immediate hazard;
4. An approaching railroad train is plainly visible and is in hazardous proximity to such crossing; or
5. The tracks at the crossing are not clear.
B. No person shall drive any vehicle through, around or under any crossing gate or barrier at a railroad crossing while such gate or barrier is closed or is being opened or closed or fail to obey the directions of a Enforcement officer at the crossing.
C. The operator of any Class A, B, or C commercial vehicle not required to stop at all railroad crossings, as prescribed in Section 11-702 of this title, shall slow down and check that the tracks are clear of an approaching train.
§66-12
Every corporation constructing, owning, or using a railroad, shall restore every stream of water, watercourse, street, highway, plank road, toll or wagon road, turnpike, or canal, across, along, or upon which said railroad may be constructed, to its former state, or to such condition as that its usefulness shall not be materially impaired, and thereafter maintain the same in such condition against any effects in any manner produced by such railroad. When any lands shall be required in order to change any highway, street, turnpike, or plank road, toll or wagon road, the same may be condemned, taken, and compensation made in the manner provided by law, and, when taken, shall become a part of such highway, street, turnpike, or plank road, toll or wagon road, to the same extent as, and by the same tenure, by which the adjacent parts thereof are held.
§66-121
Any railroad corporation may raise or lower any turnpike, plank road, or other way for the purpose of having its railroad pass over or under the same; and in such cases said corporation shall put such turnpike, plank road or other way, as soon as may be, in good repair.
§66-122
Every railroad corporation, while employed in raising or lowering any turnpike or other way, or in making any other alterations, by means of which the said way may be obstructed, shall provide and keep in good order, suitable temporary ways to enable travelers to avoid or pass such obstructions.
§66-123
Every railroad corporation shall maintain and keep in good repair all bridges, with their abutments, which such corporation shall construct for the purpose of enabling its road to pass over or under any turnpike road, canal, watercourse, or other way.
§66-124
Every railroad corporation operating a line of road within this state must erect suitable signs of caution at each crossing of its road with a public highway.
§66-125
In case any railroad corporation shall refuse or neglect, for a space of thirty (30) days after notice given by the board of county commissioners, to comply with the provisions of the preceding section, it shall become the duty of the county commissioners of each county through which any such railroad shall be in operation to erect such signs, and the company shall be liable for all expenses so incurred by said commissioners.
§66-125a
Whenever the public authorities having jurisdiction and control over any public highway or street in this state shall deem that the safety of lives and property at any railroad intersection with any highway or street, shall so require, such public authorities as are hereby authorized and empowered to construct or install, or to order the company owning such railroad so intersected, to construct or install, and thereafter maintain and operate, an automatic or mechanically operated barricading device, which, when giving warning, shall become a barrier in such highway or street; provided, however, that before any such device is constructed or installed, maintained and operated at a railroad intersection, the detailed plans of such device, with a description of the proposed mode of operation thereof, and a map showing the proposed location of the same, shall be first submitted to, and approved by, the State Highway Commission of Oklahoma.
§66-125b
Whenever said barricading device shall be constructed or installed and maintained and operated, the public authorities having jurisdiction and control over the highway or street at such point shall erect and maintain a reflector warning sign with appropriate words thereon. If said barricading device is located at a railroad crossing, said warning shall be installed and maintained not less than four hundred (400) feet from the crossing, when said crossing is located on highways or streets where vehicular traffic is permitted to travel at speeds in excess of thirty (30) miles per hour; and not less than two hundred (200) feet from the crossing, when said crossing is located on highways or streets where vehicular traffic is permitted to travel at speeds not in excess of thirty (30) miles per hour. It shall be the duty of the driver of any vehicle, on approaching such warning sign, to place his vehicle under such control as to be able to bring such vehicle to a complete stop at a distance of not less than seventy-five (75) feet in advance of the crossing. The colliding of a vehicle with the barricading device at a crossing shall be prima facie evidence that the driver thereof did not comply with the provisions of this act, and such driver shall be deemed a reckless driver, and be subjected to the penalties provided for reckless driving under the motor vehicle laws of this state, and shall be liable for any damage done to such barricading device on account of such collision.
§66-125c
The public authorities, or the political subdivision of the state, having jurisdiction and control over any public highway or street in which such barricading device is constructed or installed, maintained and operated, may expend public funds to pay the cost and expense thereof; provided, however, that the parties in interest may agree in writing otherwise.
§66-125d
The public authorities, or political subdivision of the state or the Highway Commission of the state are authorized to cooperate with the federal government in the construction, or installing, maintaining and operating such barricading devices and other safety devices.
§66-126
A bell of at least thirty (30) pounds weight, or a whistle, shall be placed on each locomotive engine, and shall be rung or whistled at the distance of at least eighty (80) rods from the place where the railroad shall cross any other road or street, under a penalty of Fifty Dollars ($50.00) for every neglect, to be paid by the corporation owning the railroad, one-half thereof to go to the informer, and the other half to the state, and shall also be liable for all damages which shall be sustained by any person by reason of such neglect.
§66-127
When any person owns land on both sides of any railroad, the corporation owning such railroad, shall, when required to so do, make and keep in good repair one causeway or other safe and adequate means of crossing the same.
§66-128
It shall be the duty of every railroad company or corporation doing business, or operating a line of railroad, within this state, to construct a crossing across that portion of its track, roadbed or right-of-way over which any public highway may run, and maintain the same unobstructed, in a good condition for the use of the public, and to build and maintain in good condition all bridges and culverts that may be necessary on its right-of-way at such crossing and in case any railroad company or corporation fails so to construct and maintain said crossing for thirty (30) days after written notice by the road overseer of any road district or the council or board of trustees of any city or town in this state, or fifty (50) petitioners of any city or town who are interested (where such work or repairs are needed), to be given to the section boss, or any station agent of any railroad company or corporation in the county (where such work or repairs are needed) it shall forfeit and pay to said county, road district, city or town complaining, the sum of Twenty-five Dollars ($25.00) per day for every day said company or corporation may neglect to comply with requirements of this section.
§66-129
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is hereby delegated the authority to prescribe rules and regulations governing the design, construction and location of such suitable signs hereafter erected which shall conform to one of the then current standards of the Association of American Railroads for highway crossings crossbuck signs.
§66-130
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission shall promulgate rules and regulations for the design, installation, construction, maintenance, inspection, and testing of warning signal devices at highway and railroad crossings in the State of Oklahoma.
Trespassing Statutes
§21-1751
Any person who maliciously, wantonly or negligently either: 1. Removes, displaces, injures or destroys any part of any railroad, or railroad equipment, whether for steam or horse cars, or any track of any railroad, or of any branch or branchway, switch, turnout, bridge, viaduct, culvert, embankment, station house, or other structure or fixture, or any part thereof, attached to or connected with any railroad; or 2. Places any obstruction upon the rails or tracks of any railroad, or any branch, branchway, or turnout connected with any railroad, shall be guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment in the State Penitentiary not exceeding four (4) years or in a county jail not less than six (6) months.
§21-1752
Whenever any offense specified in Section 1751 of this title results in the death of any human being, the offender shall be guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for not less than four (4) years.
§21-1752.1
A. Any person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor if the person:
1. Without consent of the owner or the owner's agent, enters or remains on railroad property, knowing that it is railroad property;
2. Throws an object at a train, or rail-mounted work equipment; or
3. Maliciously or wantonly causes in any manner the derailment of a train, railroad car or rail-mounted work equipment.
B. Any person shall be guilty of a felony if the person commits an offense specified in subsection A of this section which results in a demonstrable monetary loss, damage or destruction of railroad property when said loss is valued at more than One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1,500.00) or results in bodily injury to a person. Any person shall be guilty of a felony if the person discharges a firearm or weapon at a train, or rail-mounted work equipment.
C. Any person violating the misdemeanor provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one (1) year or by a fine not exceeding One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), or both such fine and imprisonment. Any person violating the felony provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and upon conviction shall be punished by imprisonment in the State Penitentiary not exceeding four (4) years. If personal injury results, such person shall be punished by imprisonment in the State Penitentiary.
D. Subsection A of this section shall not be construed to interfere with the lawful use of a public or private crossing.
E. Nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting a representative of a labor organization which represents or is seeking to represent the employees of the railroad, from conducting such business as provided under the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C., Section 151 et seq.
F. As used in this section "railroad property" includes, but is not limited to, any train, locomotive, railroad car, caboose, rail-mounted work equipment, rolling stock, work equipment, safety device, switch, electronic signal, microwave communication equipment, connection, railroad track, rail, bridge, trestle, right-of-way orother property that is owned, leased, operated or possessed by a railroad.